Take a Seat

I don’t know about you. But I’ve got a hard time getting motivated, especially when it comes to doing something hard, something that might take a lot of time, cost a bit of money or might even be a little scary. Life’s journey can be tough enough just trying to get by making it from day to the next. But every once in a while, someone comes along that prompts you to action. They get you psyched up and excited because you can see they’re going places and the next thing you know it you get swept up in the momentum and just like your own life’s journey heads in a whole new direction. You follow that person right a new road of adventure. Last fall I met a guy just like that.

In 2008 Adventure filmmaker Dominic Gill road a tandem bicycle from Alaska to the tip of Argentina. A journey of 22,000 miles for two year he peddled the length of two continents on a bicycle built for two. But here's the catch, he kept the back seat empty and invited random strangers he met along the way to join his adventure and peddle behind for as long as they liked, some for a few hours one person came along for six weeks.
Now before get the wrong idea, I didn’t get on the back of that bicycle. But I can tell you that had I me this guy riding down the coast of California I would have climbed aboard in a second. Dominic Gill was one a one of a few dozen movie producers I met during the 2009 Banff Film Festival. His documentary called Take A Seat follows his two-year journey by tandem bicycle over 20,000 mile of open road. Asking total strangers to pedal behind him on what his calls the stoker seat his travels brought a fresh sense of adventure into hearts and minds of everyone met or who tagged along for the ride.